Shell Oil Works To Revive Arctic Drilling Program

On Wednesday, the company filed an updated Arctic exploration plan with the Alaska office of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.

John Callahan, a public affairs officer for BOEM, says even though it’s based off the exploration plan Shell used in 2012, it’s a lot shorter.

“And what Shell submitted just focuses on the changed parts,” Callahan said.

This time, Shell left their Beaufort Sea leases out of the plan, because the specialized Kulluk rig the company used for that region is still out of commission from when it ran aground in the Gulf of Alaska on New Year’s Eve 2012.

Callahan says the exploration plan will go through the same review process that BOEM used last time.

“The first thing that happens is we have our folks look over it and determine if all the components are there to launch a more thorough review,” Callahan said.

BOEM has 15 business days to request additional information from Shell, before launching into a 30-day review. At that time, Callahan says BOEM will put the exploration plan online and start taking public comments on it.

Shell isn’t taking questions from reporters about their drilling plans. But they put out a short statement this week saying, “We will continue to take a methodical approach to this exploration phase and will only proceed if the program meets the conditions necessary to proceed safely and responsibly.”

But that’s not enough to satisfy environmentalists. The Ocean Conservancy called the 2014 exploration plan “premature” and accusing the company of rushing back to the Arctic.

For now, Shell is the only oil company that’s publicly considering whether to drill in the Alaskan Arctic in 2014.

Statoil has announced plans to drill test wells in the Norwegian Arctic next year.

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